Support or display panels having holes therein (such as pegboards) are used in a variety of applications in order to display (e.g., at a point of sale) and/or organize (e.g., in a residential garage) products and materials. Such pegboards commonly consist of panels with an array of holes therethrough, with the holes typically being in a grid arrangement with regular spacing therebetween (e.g., with 1 inch centerline spacings).
A variety of support hooks and the like can be mounted to the pegboard to support a wide variety of products at virtually any position on the pegboard. One type of support hook commonly used with such pegboards include legs which are pushed through the holes in the pegboard, with ears on the end of the legs defining shoulders which will engage the back of the pegboard when pushed through the holes to retain the legs in the holes and thereby prevent the support hooks from pulling off of the pegboard. The hooks also include a face portion which will engage the front of the pegboard, with the spacing between the face portion and the ear-defined shoulders substantially matching the thickness of the pegboard.
Even among pegboards which may be considered to be “standard”, they can be made of different materials and their dimensions can vary widely. For example, even material which is considered “hardboard or equivalent” with a nominal thickness of 0.250 inches will have tolerances of −0.010 and +0.005, meaning the thickness of those materials may be between 0.240 and 0.255 inches. Moreover, since many manufacturers operate on the metric system, even “equivalent” material thicknesses could be different (e.g., 6 mm thicknesses are nominally 0.225 inches, making the boards 0.215 to 0.230 inches thick). In short, variations in the expected nominal thickness of the panels being used could be from 0.210 to 0.230 and 0.240 to 0.255 inches.
Moreover, not only are the panel thickness variable, but the presence or lack of decoration on such panels can affect the thickness (e.g., 0.002 inch for a liquid coating [paint], 0.010 inch for a printed graphic glued to the panel surface, and 0.020 inch for a melamine laminate [rigid protective surface]). In short, a wide variety of effective panel thicknesses can be expected to be encountered.
[Note that material ranges listed herein are based on reviews of various manufacturers' published product specifications and field research of material already in use at retail locations, and may not represent any specific material from a specific supplier.]
Still further, the holes punched through the pegboards can vary as well, as there is not clear industry standard in this regard. Thus, varying hole sizes are frequently provided, depending on a variety of factors in the manufacture of the pegboard, including the country of manufacture, manufacturer offerings, existing equipment (tooling is very expensive and not readily changed if not required), age of the manufactured unit, and retailer specifications. Thus, it is not unusual to find pegboards having holes having different diameter holes, ranging from 0.250 to 0.280 inches. Therefore, even with pegboards in which the hole centers have a standard spacing, the variance of the spacing between the outer edges of adjacent holes (typically support hooks are secured in two adjacent holes) can be 0.030 inches (based on the closest spacing being with holes having 0.125 inch radius versus the largest spacing having 0.140 inches radius).
As a result of these variations in the dimensions of holes and panel thicknesses, support hooks which are manufactured to work with one size will not work as well with other sizes.
For example, support hooks having a spacing between their face portion and their ear-defined shoulders of 0.255 inches will ensure that when mounted the ear-defined shoulder will reach the back side of the pegboard, but when used with a pegboard having a thickness of only 0.210 inches there will be a looseness resulting in the legs of the support hooks being movable in and out of the holes by up to 0.045 inches. Not only will such looseness cause the hooks to feel that they are insecurely mounted, it can also result in the hooks to extend from the pegboard at a downwardly sloped angle rather than fully horizontally. In retail displays, for example, this can result in an undesirable and sloppy appearance. Moreover, such looseness allowing movement of the legs can increase the risk that the hooks will unexpectedly work their way loose of the pegboard and thereby potentially allow whatever is being supported to be damaged by falling to the ground.
As another example, if some middle ground of sizes were used for the support hooks in an effort to accommodate different pegboard dimensions (e.g., a 0.240 inches spacing between the hook face portion and ear-defined shoulder), there would still be some undesirable motion allowed with the smaller thickness pegboards (e.g., 0.030 inches for 0.210 inches). Moreover, with the larger thickness pegboards (e.g., 0.255 inches) the ears on the legs may not even get behind the rear of the pegboard and the hook could precariously appear to be mounted when in fact its legs only fit loosely in the pegboard and could easily pull out whenever a weight is attempted to be hung on the hook. (Further, even if legs having 0.240 inches spacing were able to be sufficiently pressed into the pegboard to get the ears behind the rear of the pegboard, in such mountings the support would tend to tilt up from the pegboard rather than extending horizontally as preferred.)
Moreover, while different support hooks can be made specifically to accommodate each of the different hole sizes, and each of the different pegboard thicknesses, the costs associated with having to manufacture each size (including multiple molds for multiple sizes) can be significantly higher than the costs of molding one size, as can the costs of increased inventory size requirements, handling, etc. Further, since the end user of a pegboard may have a difficult time determining or remembering these dimensions (e.g., when the pegboard is hung on a wall, it can be difficult to measure its thickness), it can be similarly difficult for a user to determine which particular dimension support hooks to use with a particular pegboard. Thus, obtaining additional support hooks having the correct dimension for particular pegboard, or just determining which support hooks from an inventory of such hooks to use with a particular pegboard, can all be problematic and subject to errors. Moreover, even if incorrectly sized supports are able to be mounted to a particular pegboard, use with thicker panels will cause the hook to display at a more acute angle (point toward the ceiling), whereas use with thinner panels can cause the hook to display at a more obtuse angle (point toward the floor).
Additionally, some types of pegboard hooks which have been used heretofore are installed from a levered position (i.e., by rotating the hook upward, feeding prongs into a set of holes, and then reversing the rotation to position the hook against the pegboard with the prongs trapped behind the pegboard). While those hooks can provide adequate support, the manner in which they must be mounted requires free space above the mounting position, and thus mounting these hooks at the top of the pegboard can be difficult if not impossible in many installations, for example pegboards having an overhanging top plate, such as a header graphic in a retail display.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.